


Between the Shadow and the Soul

by CuppaGiotto



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Character Study, Falling In Love, Feelings, First Love, M/M, Pablo Neruda - Freeform, Post-Coital Cuddling, Short One Shot, Sweet Gentle Babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 20:59:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10447389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuppaGiotto/pseuds/CuppaGiotto
Summary: A short one-shot of Victor watching Yuuri as he sleeps after making love. I wanted to impart what he must be feeling every time he looks at Yuuri with that look... You know the one, that unspoken look of love where his eyes look super bright and translucent at the same time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I got into this weird mood after listening to the main theme from Only Yesterday (so beautiful) and rereading “One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII” by Pablo Neruda, so… I wrote this short piece. What has always struck me is the look in Victor’s eyes when he looks at Yuuri, and I wanted to impart that feeling, in any way I could. I definitely reference the poem a bit. 
> 
> Here are the links   
> https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49236/one-hundred-love-sonnets-xvii  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogy5JVextNA
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

Even in sleep, Yuuri’s face was still creased from whatever worries he had carried throughout the day. When he was awake, his expression took on a more cautious, absentminded expression, but it was during the night with his eyes closed in slumber that the worry crossed his face and settled like shadow. His eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth came down in a slight frown. His breathing pattern remained steady but occasionally he let out a huff that turned into a faint sigh. Victor lay in the bed next to him, watching him as the hotel clock ticked steadily on. He reached up, trying not to rustle the sheets as he touched that crease between Yuuri’s eyebrows with a light fingertip. Yuuri stirred but did not wake. He traced one eyebrow outward, down the lift of his cheekbone to the soft skin underneath his eye, feeling some indescribable awe at the thought of the bones and blood that pumped steadily underneath his skin, and the thoughts and dreams that drifted just below his fingertips. He felt that weight in his chest again, and swallowed with some difficulty. He couldn’t describe it-it was as Yuuri said when he was announcing his theme for the Grand Prix. He didn’t have a name for it… but he decided to call it love. All he knew was that the world around him had come alive since he’d known Yuuri, and Yuuri was the bright center of it. The way a windy day seems to playfully toss the world about, his emotions could not sit still. They rose in waves, like little bubbles that rose from some obscure place between his shadow and his soul, and squeezed his chest and throat until speaking was impossible, and all he could do was gaze back at Yuuri with luminous eyes.

He’d moved to caressing the side of Yuuri’s mouth now, where the corners had turned down. The dip in the corners of his mouth were just as smooth and he gently ran a thumb across his lower lip. Like velvet or silk, he couldn’t really decide. He was reminded of the way Yuuri’s mouth had parted tenderly for him; they had shared a long kiss after making love and before falling asleep, and the passion and intimacy shared in that moment made Victor forget whose skin was whose, whose mouth was being nibbled; so close that Yuuri’s hand on his chest was his own. For a sleepy moment he couldn’t help but wonder if Yuuri had closed his eyes with Victor’s dreams behind them. The scent of their lovemaking made him think of the balmy air of the ocean, of the dim scent of the wet earth after rainfall. Things he had not really experienced with such clarity until now, and the sensations danced upon his skin like rain or notes of music. Yuuri made a muted sound and opened his eyes blearily, half drawn out of sleep by the touch of Victor’s fingertips. His lips opened slightly and pressed into his hand. Another tender kiss. Yuuri reached out a sleepy hand and very gently cupped Victor’s cheek in his palm, his thumb brushing his cheekbone. Whose hands were whose? Yuuri leaned forward to place a kiss on the corner of his mouth and then and as their lips touched, Victor decided that he didn’t know how, or when, or from where the emotions that flowed into him came from, only that he could feel rather than see this form in which they were neither one nor just each other.


End file.
